Summit on Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking

Focus of the Summit

The Global Slavery Index estimates that almost 30 million people are currently enslaved in the world today. That is more than at any point in human history. At $32 billion, it is the world's second largest criminal industry. As a Catholic, Jesuit school, Bellarmine College Preparatory will engage in a summit on human dignity focused on the issue of modern slavery. As men and women for and with others, we will attempt to educate ourselves and respond to Jesus' call "to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free."

Prayer for Victims of Human Trafficking

Oh God we didn't see them, but you did -
The hundreds and thousands of human beings
Trafficked each year to join the millions who are trapped in modern-day slavery
Under terrible conditions, they work in factories, plough fields,
Harvest crops, work quarries,
Fill brothels, clean homes and haul water.
Many are children with tiny fingers for weaving rugs
And small shoulders for bearing rifles.
Their labor is force, their bodies beaten, their faces hidden
From those who don't really want to see them.
But you see them all, God of the poor.
You hear their cry and you answer by opening our eyes,
And breaking our hearts and loosening our tongues to insist:
No mas. No more.

January:

March:

Martina Vandenberg
Founder and President of Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center in Washington, DC, and the 2015 recipient of the Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize for her stellar, long-term work fighting human trafficking, forced labor, rape as a war crime and violence against women.

A Path Appears

A powerful text and video follow up to Nicholas Kristof's book/DVD, Half the Sky. See and hear stories of victims and what we can do here in the United States, and abroad, to help. View discretion is advised. Clips are available at PBS Video.

Don't Step on the B!
The block B sidewalk mosaic was originally placed in the quad during the 1988-1989 school year. Tradition calls for students to walk around the B, rather than stepping on the B, as a demonstration of school pride.